Václav Petr

Biography

“I had made up my mind about the cello when I was two years old.”

For more than a decade, he has held the position of principal cello of the Czech Philharmonic. He began performing as a soloist at age 12, and he also devotes himself to chamber music in an ensemble called The Trio. Since his victory at the Prague Spring Competition, the cellist Václav Petr has been solidifying his standing as one of the most successful artists of his generation.

“When I was born, dad put together a quartet with a flute, an oboe, a guitar, and a cello. When I was little I used to listen to them rehearse, and I got to know the sound of those instruments. At age two, I supposedly announced that I would play the cello, and I started before I turned four”, says Václav Petr, describing his start as a musician. Later, he graduated from the Jan Neruda Grammar School in Prague, where his cellos teacher was Mirek Škampa, then from the Academy of Performing Arts under the guidance of Daniel Veis and Michal Kaňka. “However, perhaps the greatest impetus for my further development came with my first encounter with the distinguished German cellist Wolfgang Boettcher, the former principal cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic, whom I met at a course in Bonn. I’ll ever forget my first lesson. When I showed up at his door, Boettcher, already in his seventies by then, welcomed me by shouting ‘Golden Prague!’ and immediately started reciting Czech tongue twisters. Standing there in a state of shock, I sensed a tremendous wave of energy pouring over me”, says Petr, explaining why he decided to take part in the Erasmus exchange programme at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, where Boettscher was teaching. He later travelled to take private lessons from the teacher.

Besides his regular studies, he also further refined his playing at a series of international masterclasses in Bonn, mentioned above, as well as in Kronberg, Hamburg, Vaduz, and Baden-Baden. He has many successes at competitions to his credit, beginning from his childhood (e.g. Prague Junior Note, the International Cello Competition in Liezen, Austria, Talents of Europe, Concertino Praga, the David Popper Competition in Hungary, and the Antonio Janigro competition in Croatia). He worked his way up gradually to Europe’s most prestigious competitions (semifinalist at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann, winner of the Prague Spring Competition).

At age 24, he won the audition to join the Czech Philharmonic, becoming one of the youngest principal players in the orchestra’s history. What he appreciates the most about playing in the orchestra is the constant opportunity to learn a large amount of orchestral repertoire, with music of the romantic era and the 20th century being especially dear to him. He also enjoys having regular contact with his colleagues from the orchestra. He sees the frequent tours as a bonus because he loves travelling and making new acquaintances. He has also already made several solo appearances with the Czech Philharmonic as well as with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava, and the Baden-Baden Philharmonic.

He has also enjoyed great success playing chamber music. From 2009 to 2020 he played in the Josef Suk Piano Quartet, with which he won first prize in Val Tidone, Italy, at the Salieri-Zinetti competition, and at one of the most prestigious competitions for ensembles with piano, the Premio Trio di Trieste. Then in 2019 he joined with Czech Philharmonic concertmaster Jiří Vodička and pianist Martin Kasík in establishing the Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio, later renamed as The Trio. With the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, they recorded Bohuslav Martinů’s Bergerettes wearing period costumes, which earned them victory at an international competition in Vienna. Petr also appears occasionally in a duo with the pianist Marek Kozák.

When he does not happen to be playing his rare instrument from the workshop of Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (the “Teschenmacher” cello from 1757), he loves sports, cooking, and playing computer games. “And I’m lazy”, he adds with a laugh.